A stern-faced, tough-talking Gov. Terry McAuliffe made his bid to take Virginia politics into a new era last week, defiantly rejecting a General Assembly effort to tie his hands on expanding Medicaid. McAuliffe put Virginia at the center of the bitter national debate over Obamacare in a critical mid-term federal election year with his veto of budget language empowering a special legislative panel to decide on Medicaid expansion - a panel he blasted as "merely a sham" meant to block coverage for low-income Virginians - and of a last-minute Senate amendment meant to block his claims that he had authority to expand coverage.

A stern-faced, tough-talking Gov. Terry McAuliffe made his bid to take Virginia politics into a new era last week, defiantly rejecting a General Assembly effort to tie his hands on expanding Medicaid. McAuliffe put Virginia at the center of the bitter national debate over Obamacare in a critical mid-term federal election year with his veto of budget language empowering a special legislative panel to decide on Medicaid expansion - a panel he blasted as "merely a sham" meant to block coverage for low-income Virginians - and of a last-minute Senate amendment meant to block his claims that he had authority to expand coverage.

Maryland's Gary Williams is one of only eight men who have both coached and played in the ACC tournament. And with 17 appearances -- three as a scrappy Terrapin guard; 14 as their fiery head coach -- the tournament holds a special place in his heart. With the addition of Virginia Tech and Miami next year, ACC will be an 11-team conference. Then it goes to 12 when Boston College comes aboard in 2005-06. It will start a new era for the league, and some are concerned that the tournament won't have the same kind of charm and intimacy.

The start of a new year brings with it a renewed energy and anticipation for the months ahead. That is certainly the case at Jefferson Lab as we press towards a new era of nuclear physics research that we hope will provide the world with greater knowledge and insight into the forces and elements that form our visible universe. If you have driven by the lab in recent months, you are likely to have seen a new building take shape in what was once an open lot. That new structure, our Technology and Engineering Development (TED)

On Monday, in a big network computer server somewhere, a switch gets thrown on a new era. Digital City Hampton Roads, a partnership that includes the Daily Press and America Online, gets its first public exposure. It's a quiet launch, the kind of inauguration the retailers know as a "cold opening": You open the store without any celebration to give yourself a chance to work out the kinks. After our new Digital City has worked out the bugs that always infest a new technological effort, you'll hear and see plenty about its grand opening (including here; Digital City "mayor" Digby Solomon has promised to tell all in an upcoming editor's column)

Alan Diamonstein is a practiced politician, yet he shuns the spotlight. When it comes to holding press conferences and grabbing for glory, he's like a fish on a bicycle. But now he finds himself in a new role in a new era. After decades of behind-the-scenes work within a dominant party, this Democrat must come to grips with the political realities of the 1990s: Republicans own Virginia's governor's mansion and are catching up in the statehouse. Campaigning is a constant activity.

Work continues on Interstate 664. As it does, the dawn of a new era - and ultimately, perhaps a new name - nears for parts of Suffolk, Chesapeake and Portsmouth. The neighborhood - part of what once was Churchland - is already referred to as the Tri-Cities area. The thruway, which starts on Interstate 64 near Hampton Coliseum, crosses Newport News and the James River to intersect with both new Interstate 164, known as the Western Freeway, and Route 17. By 1992, the beltway will surround Tidewater.

Unlike the past two years when Jamestown Settlement's entrance almost seemed hidden away, visitors today should have no trouble figuring out where to go. As they get out of their cars, they will be greeted by a new reception area -- and its 42-foot-high windowed entrance -- as they enter a new 32,000-square-foot building. Officials at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, the state agency that operates the settlement, say it's a new era for the 45-year-old living history museum.

The 110-year history of Newport News Shipbuilding has, in large measure, been the history of the Peninsula. If not for Collis P. Huntington's decision to build a shipyard at the mouth of the James River in what was then Warwick County, it's difficult to imagine how the story of this area would have unfolded. Today, dubbed Independence Day, a new chapter in Newport News Shipbuilding begins, and with it a new chapter in the Peninsula's unfinished history. The shipyard is once again an independent company, and a nearly 30-year history as a subsidiary of Tenneco is over.

In the lead-up to President Barack Obama's election, I suffered the delusion that even here in the South, racism might finally have tired of itself. We were seemingly ready to move into a new era. I was so wrong. As a direct descendant of infamous Confederates (including Edmund Ruffin, Southerner) and as a public school student during the height of desegregation in Norfolk, I've spent a lifetime trying to reconcile my fierce love of the South with its sad legacy of racial hatred and violence.

When classes start this month, a new era will begin for Richard Bland College. The college will no longer be solely a commuter campus. "We think the resident halls to this point are a complete success," said Russell E. Whitaker Jr., dean of administration and finance. "Construction has been completed on schedule and within budget." So far, 250 out of 251 bedrooms have been rented. The furnished apartments, which have one to four bedrooms, are equipped with cable television, local phone service, a washer and dryer, a full kitchen, and wireless Internet access.

When the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation began a massive investment in evolving its identity as a historic attraction in 2000, Board of Trustees Chairman Colin G. Campbell also took on the role of president and chief executive officer to see it through. With most of the ambitious projects and new programming in place, the foundation is now looking for a new leader to move the changes forward. Campbell will retain his job as of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, but he will relinquish his position as the head of the board of trustees to former banking executive Richard G. Tilghman, the nonprofit announced Monday.

A former Suffolk mayor says he wants another shot at running the city. Former Mayor Andy Damiani confirmed Wednesday he plans to toss his hat into the ring in the city's upcoming mayoral election. Damiani, 86, served on the City Council from 1970 until 1991, including two terms as mayor. He's also president of the Downtown Business Association. November's election will be the first in which Suffolk citizens elect their mayor directly. Traditionally, council members selected one of their own to serve as mayor.

Be careful. Anything you say and do may be used against you in a court of law. Has it come to this: that parents should get Miranda warnings before they joke around with their children? Sandra Venery might agree. The Virginia Beach mom has been charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor after she posted on MySpace a video of her 2-year-old trying to light a cigarette and being coaxed to say a vulgar word. She was in jail, initially denied bond - which differentiates her from the real criminals who are granted bail right away.

If the answer to Sergio Garcia's woes is sticking the top of a putter grip in his belly, then golf could be at the dawn of a new era. There are few players who can match Garcia's ability to swing the club off the tee and in the fairway. But when it comes to putting the ball in the hole, where the ultimate payoff lies, the Spaniard usually wields his putter as if he has an upset stomach. Last year, he ranked 158th on the PGA Tour in putting. The sight of him yipping putts in the final pairing with Tiger Woods at last year's British Open led to doubts that he would ever win a major.

The Antwoine Womack era is finally over, and the Phoebus Phantoms must find a new go-to player in 1997. Womack, the state Group AAA career rushing leader, rambled for 5,570 yards and scored 73 touchdowns in four seasons. Phoebus amassed a 33-10 record during that span and made the Division 5 Eastern Region playoffs twice. While Womack takes his skills to the University of Virginia, senior Gavin Walls (6-foot-2, 195 pounds) tries to be the next impact player for the Ireland Street school.

If more people want to get right with God before the new millennium begins, the Rev. Paul Napier says he'll have plenty of room at his church. The congregation of Emmanuel Lutheran in Hampton plans to open a 300-seat sanctuary on Semple Farm Road in August 1999, more than doubling the size of the current church building on Kecoughtan Road. "I think the change in millennium is an unprecedented attention-getter in our time," Napier says. "I would hope that people would especially take it as an opportunity to think about Christ's promise to return in glory and judgment."

Research uncovers a speeding particle that may also give Fermilab a much-needed boost. The discovery that a bizarre particle travels between the real world of matter and the spooky realm of antimatter 3 trillion times a second may open the door to a new era of physics, Fermilab researchers announced Monday. The incredibly rapid commuting rate of the B-sub-s meson particle had been predicted by the Standard Model, the successful but incomplete theory aimed at explaining how matter and energy interact to form the visible universe.

With first-year coordinators and a new QB, Virginia struggles in its opener at Pittsburgh. The curtain rose at 7:06 p.m. Saturday on a new era of Virginia football. The Cavaliers' offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and quarterback -- all making their debut performances. Virginia's players lined the sideline, their jerseys neatly tucked, their ankles taped, their chin straps buckled. Place-kicker Chris Gould ran toward the football, kicked it off the tee and watched it tumble through the night sky. Little else went right for the Cavaliers after that.